Report splits blame for border attack

U.S. and Pakistani officials share blame for mistakes that were made in a cross-border attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last month and led to a new low in U.S.-Pakistani relations, according to a U.S. military report released Thursday.

The conclusion that U.S. forces “acted in self defense and with appropriate force after being fired upon” when they attacked isn’t likely to soothe Pakistani anger over the Nov. 25-26 incident, which led to a closure of border crossings used to bring supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan and the expulsion of U.S. troops from a base in southern Pakistan used for drone attacks.

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Officials in Islamabad were expecting an apology for what they have described as an unprovoked deadly attack, and declined to participate in the U.S. investigation. But Air Force Brig. Gen. Stephen Clark, who led the probe, told reporters Thursday that coalition aircraft dropped flares after troops on the ground came under machine gun and mortar fire from the Pakistani side of the border, and only launched airstrikes when that firing continued.

Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey and Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani “had a very professional and cordial conversation” about the investigation, but Pakistani officials have not yet been briefed on the results.

“Frankly our timeline was accelerated because of leaks,” Little said. “We are going to share our findings with the government of Pakistan and will do so very soon.”

Clark’s investigation found that “inadequate coordination by U.S. and Pakistani military officers operating through the border coordination center — including our reliance on incorrect mapping information shared with the Pakistani liaison officer — resulted in a misunderstanding about the true location of Pakistani military units. This, coupled with other gaps in information about the activities and placement of units from both sides, contributed to the tragic result,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

The probe also found “there was no intentional effort to target persons or places known to be part of the Pakistani military, or to deliberately provide inaccurate location information to Pakistani officials.”

At the briefing, Clark said there were two key elements that contributed to the incident: a mistake by a U.S. officer that led to Pakistani officials being given the wrong location for the U.S. attack, and the “overarching lack of trust” between the two sides that made American commanders reluctant to share precise locations of their troops with Pakistani officers.

How can any rational person think this has to do with Obama? There are many areas in which Obama is involved which merit discussion, but having anything to with a tragic military mistake is not one of them.